Monthly Archives: September 2012

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Thank you to everyone who has supported KLRU during this final push toward our end-of-fiscal-year goal. This is the LAST time we’ll be asking for your support for the Countdown Campaign, so now is the time to show that you value everything that KLRU does for Central Texas.

Think about what you value about public television – is it the quality of the productions? Is it the way each program draws you in with engaging and thoughtful content? Is it the absence of advertising and interruptions? Is it all of those things and more?

Donate today for the reason you turn your television to KLRU or visit klru.org on your computer or watch KLRU programs on the PBS app or come to KLRU for a screening or event. Give for that reason, right now.

Your support goes a long way – even the smallest gift can help us accomplish so much. In 2011-2012, the support from individuals like you helped us:

Acquire 16 iPads, loaded with PBS Kids and other PBS multimedia apps to take to schools, community centers, and other public events.

Air Growing Hope Against Hunger the Emmy-winning Sesame Street episode on family hunger in August. Tagged onto the broadcast was a bilingual message to call 2-1-1 if access to food is a concern. Call centers during this period recorded an increase of nearly 100 calls coinciding with the broadcasts.

Collaborate on local productions showcasing the best Texas has to offer with The Daytripper, On Story from Austin Film Festival and the brand new local music series, Hardly Sound.

Purchase new episodes for the fall season like Call the Midwife, Doctor Who Series 6, Upstairs, Downstairs Season 2, Dust Bowl by Ken Burns and new independent films from POV and Independent Lens.

Thank you for your commitment to KLRU and let’s end 2011-2012 with a bang!

This weekend, Call the Midwife will start. This moving, intimate, funny and true-to-life series, based on the best-selling memoirs of the late Jennifer Worth, tells colorful stories of midwifery and families in London’s East End in the 1950s. Jenny Lee, a young woman raised in the wealthy English countryside, has chosen to become a nurse and now, as a newly qualified midwife, has gone to work in the poorest area of the city. Attached to an order of nursing nuns at Nonnatus House, Jenny is part of a team of women who minister to expectant mothers, many of whom give birth at home in appalling conditions. The drama follows Jenny as she meets her patients and learns to love the people who live in the East End. Call the Midwife will air on Sundays at 7 pm starting September 30th and repeat on Saturdays at 9 pm.

Land Girls will continue to air on Saturdays at 8 pm. Just started the series on September 1st and will continue with Series 2 & 3 in October & November. Commissioned by BBC1 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of World War II, Land Girls follows the lives, loves, highs and lows of four young English women who left their homes and families to join the Woman’s Land Army. A civilian organization, the WLA sent city women to rural farms to replace the male workers who had been called up to the military.

Masterpiece Classic “Upstairs, Downstairs, Series 2” will begin to air on Sunday nights at 8 pm on October 7th. If you want a chance to review Series 1 of Upstairs, Downstairs, you can watch all three episodes back-to-back this Sunday, September 30th from 8 pm – 11 pm. As 165 Eaton Place reopens its doors, new arrivals make their mark.

Also KLRU will have new episodes of Doctor Who Series 6 coming up in October.

In November and December, KLRU will provide rebroadcasts of Downton Abbey episodes. And then the new season of Downton Abbey will be featured in January 2013.

Our station has heard that Doc Martin will be producing a new series of programming. Once those episodes are made available, KLRU will acquire them for air.

Nature at 6 pm Sunday provides a global look at the “homelife of wildlife” from a small depression in the sand to elaborate, multi-chambered tunnels.

Call The Midwife at 7 pm Sunday and 9 pm Saturday shares the sorrows and joys that come with being a midwife as Jenny Lee arrives in the East End of London to begin her career.

The saga continues at 165 Eaton Place with new characters upstairs and down in a three-part sequel to the much-loved series from the 1970s on Masterpiece Classic Presents: Upstairs Downstairs at 8 pm Sunday.

History Detectives at 7 pm Tuesday attempts to return the diary of a fallen North Vietnamese soldier to his family, whose recipes for large volumes of liquor makes an Indiana man wonder if his rich uncle earned money bootlegging during Prohibition.

Nature at 7 pm Wednesday visits Kilauea on Hawaii’s Big Island, the world’s most active volcano that began erupting in 1983 and hasn’t stopped since.

POV at 9 pm Thursday presents “Biblioburro, The Donkey Library”, the story of a librarian — and a library — like no other.

Voces on PBS at 9 pm Friday presents “Escaramuza: Riding From The Heart”, the story of first-generation Mexican American girls who construct their identities through a romanticized equestrian tradition, while facing challenges at home, and escalating violence in Mexico.

Iconic British band Radiohead give a rare, full-hour performance of fan favorites as well as brand new tracks on the season premiere of Austin City Limits at 7 pm.

For those of you looking for Van Cliburn and Itzhak Perlman from Live from Lincoln Center, these two specials will be featured this Sunday, September 30th.

Cliburn: 50 Years of Gold will air on Sunday, September 30th at 2 pm followed at 3 pm by Live from Lincoln Center “The Philharmonic Opening Gala with Itzhak Perlman.”

Cliburn: 50 Years of Gold–Every four years a group of the finest young pianists take the stage at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. In the midst of the drama, the beauty, the nerves and the excitement, they know one thing is true – what happens there can change their lives. They strive to feel the joy of victory and achieve their utmost goal: to become a performer on the world stage. As seen through the eyes and memories of 15 gold medalists, The Cliburn: 50 Years of Gold follows the half-century long history of one of the world’s most prestigious music competitions, set against the backdrop of beautiful music. The most important moment in the life of a young pianist is when he or she walks out onto the stage of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Gut-wrenching drama, strung-out nerves and the joy of victory are the elements that make up this extraordinary film retrospective.

Live from Lincoln Center “The Philharmonic Opening Gala with Itzhak Perlman”–Violin legend Itzhak Perlman joins the New York Philharmonic and music director Alan Gilbert for this season opening concert gala featuring Respighi’s Pines of Rome.

So please join KLRU-TV on Sunday, September 30th at 2 pm for these two unique specials.

The October 2012 Community Cinema film is As Goes Janesville with screenings and discussions in both Austin and Round Rock. All screenings will start at 7 pm, are free and open to the public.

As Goes Janesville by Brad Lichtenstein records two years in the lives of laid-off workers, business leaders, and elected officials trying to reinvent their lives and their Midwestern town amid the closure of their GM plant and America’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Screenings take place October 2 at Austin’s Windsor Park Branch Library (5833 Westminster Dr.) and October 25 at Round Rock Public Library (216 E. Main Street).

The first Monday of the month KLRU Q’s 11pm music block features Hardly Sound. The documentary series focuses on Texas underground music and artists but goes beyond the recording studio to tell the story of the band members with insight into the creative process.

This month … Dive into the world of the Austin, Texas garage rock scene with The Bad Lovers and all their rock ‘n’ roll cohorts as they talk about their adventurous past, hopeful future, and the sometimes tenuous friendships that they’ve formed over the years. Hardly Sound airs the first Monday of the month at 11 pm on KLRU-Q. The Bad Lovers episode airs October 1.

Thursday, September 27, Arts in Context explores some of Austin’s best contemporary and performance art featured in this year’s Fusebox Festival. Featured is Austin’s own Les RAV and composer Travis Weller, both showcasing unique local talent. Also featured is Jennifer Sherburn, a dancer and composer whose innovative style brings to the stage a non-traditional form of Austin art. Fusebox Festival features not only Austin’s best artists, but also showcases some of the most interesting national and international artists, like Singer/Songwriter Holcombe Waller (Portland), the electronic folk duo, Lulacruza (Colombia and Argentina), and choreographer David Zambrano’s (Venezuela).

Fusebox Festival is a space where artists and audiences can take risks, ask questions and explore ideas together, break rules and blur boundaries. The 2012 festival features a great mix of local and international talent performing theater, dance, and music.

Please join KLRU’s Overheard with Evan Smith for an interview with Diane Ravitch

DATE: October 1
TIME: 10:45 am (Doors open at 10:15)
LOCATION: KLRU’s Studio 6A (map)
RSVP: The event is free but an RSVP is required. RSVP now

Diane Ravitch is one of the country’s leading thinkers about education. She’s a bestselling author and a former Assistant Secretary of Education, and she routinely speaks out when education is in the news. Ravitch has been a major voice on many of the hottest issues in public education: standardized testing, using test scores to measure teachers, charter schools, collective bargaining by teachers and the recent Chicago teachers’ strike.

We hope you’ll be there as Overheard with Evan Smith begins a third season of great conversation with fascinating people, always on the news and always with a sense of humor. The show features in-depth interviews with a mix of guests from politics, the arts, literature, journalism, business, sports and more, and reaches PBS viewers from California to Florida. We’d love to see you in the studio for the interview, and for a chance to join the audience Q&A after the interview.

The Briscoe Center invites you to attend a screening of For the Sake of the Song, followed by a special musical performance, on Oct. 5, 2012 at 7 p.m. at the KLRU studio.

For the Sake of the Song is an award-winning documentary about Anderson Fair, the legendary Houston music venue that has cultivated some of the most notable songwriters and performers in America. Co-sponsored by the Briscoe Center, the film documents the story behind one the oldest folk and acoustic music venues in continuous operation in the United States.

The event concludes with a special musical performance by award-winning artists featured in the film.

After a huge outpouring of support yesterday, we went from having $115,000 left to raise this September to $93,000. So many folks have mailed in checks, called in with their gifts, or given online and we’re so appreciative of your effort and your generosity – thank you!

The Countdown Campaign ends on September 30, the end of KLRU’s fiscal year, and we need your help to end the year with a balanced budget. We sincerely appreciate everyone who supports us throughout the year – this is your public television station and couldn’t exist without you. If you’re able to make an additional gift this week (or join for the very first time), it would make a huge difference to KLRU right now.